4/23/2008 Lauren Eichmann, ECE Illinois
Three ECE students, Matt Davis, Terry Chen, and Tristan Griffith, will enter their target-shooting robot in a competition that is part of the 16th Annual DEFCON Computer Security Conference in Las Vegas August 8-10.
Written by Lauren Eichmann, ECE Illinois
Three ECE students will enter their target-shooting robot in a competition that is part of the 16th Annual DEFCON Computer Security Conference at the Riviera Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas August 8-10. The open competition challenges competitors to create a computer-controlled gun that can shoot down stationary and moving circular targets ranging in size from three inches to a half inch in diameter.
For their project, undergraduates Matt Davis, Terry Chen, and Tristan Griffith attached a Web camera to the front of a robotic Airsoft gun that shoots plastic pellets at circular cardboard targets 10 feet away. The $400 autonomous gun moves on two axes and is controlled by a personal computer that does target image processing. Contestants have two minutes in a head-to-head competition against other robots to shoot down as many targets as possible in a five-by-five foot area. Scoring is based on double elimination.
Davis, Chen, and Griffith first began developing the robot through the ECE Advanced Digital Projects Laboratory (ADSL) in Fall 2007, and have been making improvements to the shooting accuracy of their design ever since. To finish the robot, the ECE machine shop is working on a mount for its laser sight, and the students are hoping to enhance the targeting algorithms and provide more robust calibration options within the software. After the robot’s capabilities were tested during public display at last month’s Engineering Open House, the students think they have a decent shot at winning the DEFCON competition.
Right now the robot is able to shoot down around 12 targets in two to three minutes with 75 percent accuracy. The group’s new software will make it faster and more accurate.
Winners of the DEFCON robot competition receive a DEFCON Black Badge, providing the awardees’ free conference entry for life, and bragging rights for a year. Sign-up information for the 2008 competition is still pending though, as the rules for this year were released a couple weeks ago.
Davis and Griffith will both be living in Seattle by competition time, and working at Amazon and Microsoft, respectively. Chen will be employed by Analog Devices, Inc. in Boston.
"Considering the nature of DEFCON, we think the purpose is to show off your hardware/software skills and just have fun," they wrote in a statement. "In the end, engineering is as much about creating a useful product as it is about having fun."
For more information about the competition, visit http://defconbots.org. To learn more about the Advanced Digital Projects Laboratory at ECE Illinois, visit http://courses.ece.illinois.edu/ece395.